My problem with Barry was that he still believed that he could play as well as he did in his ‘pomp’, and that was a real problem, especially, when he played against Widnes. Ego or what? His lack of pace was severely exposed, he shied away from tackles yet berated his players for not doing what he should have been doing but was incapable of doing it. By this comment, I mean tackling and performing for the full 80 minutes. That said, he was a decent coach, developed the players abilities and won promotion to the Championship.
Had it not been for the ineptitude of the Directors which enabled us to start with –9 points, then we still could have been there. Better not say any more on that subject!
Whenever he played against us with his former teams he kicked us to death with 40/20’s by the score; but how many did he (or his players in his absence) kick for us? We need more and I believe that JD re-introduce this aspect of the game to the Cougars in 2011.
I’ve supported Keighley since 1962 and have seen the ‘Good Years’ as well as the ‘Bad’ and have seen some truly ‘Great’ games as well as those that were abject. That is why I feel that we need fast, open play. No-one can beat it. The great sides of the 60’s and 70’s had it and so do the good Super League sides of today.
Danny Jones is real ‘CLASS’. He’ll do well in any side. It’s a pity that he’s gone. But there are others that will take his place, just as Jeff Nicholson did after Colin Evans. Scrum Halves are born to play in that position and we do have replacements.
As far as Presley is concerned, to my way of thinking, he never ‘backed’ his own ability. He could have scored many more tries if he had actually believed in himself. Perhaps Dave Woods will develop this aspect of his play at York but, he was brilliant at times but inconsistent overall. As long as we have a good replacement who actually believes in his ability and backs his ability to score then I don’t think that we’ll miss him so much. That said, it will be JD’s job to instil belief into whoever becomes our first choice stand-off in 2011.
